40 Agricultural Harm to the Environment
set out its plan for implementation of Agenda 21. This put forward ecological
farming, known as Shengtai Nongye or agroecological engineering, as the approach
to achieve sustainability in agriculture. Pilot projects have been established in some
2000 townships and villages spread across 150 counties. Policy for these ‘eco-
counties’ is organized through a cross-ministry partnership, which uses a variety of
incentives to encourage adoption of diverse production systems to replace monoc-
ultures. These include subsidies and loans, technical assistance, tax exemptions
and deductions, security of land tenure, marketing services and linkages to research
organizations. These eco-counties contain some 12 million hectares of land, about
half of which is cropland, and though only covering a relatively small part of Chi-
na’s total agricultural land, do illustrate what is possible when policy is coordinated
and holistic.
An even larger set of countries has seen some progress on agricultural sustain-
ability at project and programme level. However, progress occurs despite, rather
than because of, explicit policy support. No agriculture minister is likely to say
they are against sustainable agriculture, yet good words remain to be translated
into comprehensive policy reforms. Sustainable agricultural systems can be eco-
nomically, environmentally and socially viable, and at the same time contribute
positively to local livelihoods. But without appropriate policy support, they are
likely to remain at best localized in extent, and at worst simply wither away. In
Europe and North America, most policy analysts and sustainable agriculture
organizations now agree that a policy framework that integrates support for farm-
ing together with rural development and the environment could create new jobs,
protect and improve natural resources, and support rural communities. Such a
policy could have many of the elements of the progressive Swiss and Cuban policy
reforms made during the 1990s.
Cuba’s National Policy for Sustainable Agriculture
At the turn of the century, Cuba was the only developing country with an explicit
national policy for sustainable agriculture. To the end of the 1980s, Cuba’s agricul-
tural sector was heavily subsidized by the Soviet bloc. It imported more than half
of all calories consumed, and 80–95 per cent of wheat, beans, fertilizer, pesticides
and animal feed. It received three times the world price for its sugar. At the time,
Cuba had the most scientists per head of population in Latin America, the most
tractors per hectare, the second highest grain yields, the lowest infant mortality,
the highest number of doctors per head population and the highest secondary
school enrolment. But in 1990, trade with the Soviet bloc collapsed, leading to
severe shortages in all imports, and restricting farmers’ access to petroleum, fertiliz-
ers and pesticides.
The government’s response was to declare an ‘Alternative Model’ as the official
policy – an agriculture that focuses on technologies that substitute local knowledge,